Through Different Eyes

My Friends! Another Friday, another beautiful project from my Creative Team.

I don't know about you but Gayle's Art always makes me stop, reflect and admire her enormous talent.

See for yourselves...

Hello lovely Finnabair friends.

Do you know the phrase “seeing the world through rose coloured glasses”? Where everything is good.

With the recent heart breaking events of thousands of people being forced to flee their homes in Syria, I wished I had such a pair of glasses. Ones that gave me a new vision. A vision that was free of all inhumanity:- and, if only it wasn’t a vision, but a truth.

My page is reflective of this idealistic dream. A sad face, wearing ornate glasses, that see only kindness and freedom.

My techniques are not new, and again, my love of collage, colour and pattern have been worked into this page. Even though there are several processes, they are not difficult, as you will see from the steps below.

No.1 I have worked on a piece of 12x12inch chipboard. I wanted the face to have subtle surface pattern and texture. I dry embossed onto thin card and glued the pieces down onto the area where the face would be, using Art Basics 3D Matte Gel.

No.2 Next I gave these pieces a coat of White Gesso.

No.3  The face is an image transfer. There are many different ways of doing this and lots of YouTube videos , but as I have been asked so often, this is the way I do it:

The face was a photograph that was copied onto ordinary, white copy paper in black and white. I use a cheap Epson Ink Jet printer to do this. The image comes out in reverse.

Coat the printed side of your copied image with Soft Matte Gel, turn it over (so now it’s face down) and gently press it into the area you want it to be.

With your fingers smooth it out gently, starting in the centre and working out to the edges. Push the image gently into the embossed, textured areas.. Allow to dry or use a heat tool.

Once completely dry, mist with water, what is now the back of the image, and rub gently with your finger. The paper will start to peel away and you will be left with the ink image.

I have painted colour detail onto the eyes with acrylic paint.

No.4 Collage the background with torn paper pieces stuck down with 3D Matte Gel.

No.5  Once my papers were stuck down and dry, I gave them a coat of White Gesso to soften the paper edges, followed by a thin wash (watered down paint) of acrylic. I also coloured the lips with acrylic paint.

No.6  This large chipboard “frame” became the “glasses”, with a chipboard flourish, cut into pieces, and some Mechanicals, being used for decorative details. They were all given a coat of White Gesso. (I did however change my mind later with this base coat and used Black Gesso… sorry, no photo)

No.7  All the little pieces were stuck onto the chipboard frame using 3D Matte Gel. I mixed pink Mica Powder with water in a spray bottle and misted everything (except the butterflies, which I painted with pink and gold Mica Powder mixed with Soft Matte Gel).

Once that was dry, I used gold and teal Mica Powder mixed with Soft Matte Gel for some extra splashes of colour.

No.8  Mica Powders are one of my favourite products. They are easy to use and give such a beautiful, deep, coloured shimmer.

No.9  So, this is how the page looks. I have not yet glued the “glasses” on. So I will put them aside while I add some detail to the collaged background.

No.10  Firstly, some white emossing using Finnabair clear stamps: “Messy” and “Frilly Lace”.

No.11  Some more stamping around the edges using black, permanent ink with ”Dream On” and “Old Town” set.

No.12  Next a “Harlequin” stencil through which I’ve dabbed Clear Embossing Ink followed by Clear Embossing Powder. These clear embossed diamond shapes will “resist” my next layer - Ecoline Watercolor. I have just let the watercolour run down the page and helped it along a little by misting with water.

No.13  Some more collage details using images cut from a paper napkin. These have been glued down using Soft Matte Gel.

No.14  Lastly some texture using a stencil and Modeling Paste. Because the Ecoline water-colour is not waterproof and the Modeling Paste is a “wet” medium, the red violet colour of the Ecoline “bleeds” into the white paste and colours it.

 Mica Powders, dry embossing, wet embossing, collage, stencils, stamping and watercolour.

 Beautiful Mica Powders in Pink, Gold and Teal.

Wet Modeling Paste over dry watercolour paint will soak up that colour.

Thank you so much for looking today.

I hope you will be inspired to play with layers and enjoy the many different effects you can achieve with different mediums.

Gayle

Materials used: